3 year old driving me crazy

[Fatas]

He’s holding his pooh in after being trained fine and going regularly.

I’m not sure if it’s affecting his sleep or not. He does sleep through sometimes but does tend to be when he’s evacuated. Though I’m not sure if I’m imagining it.
We have a light on in the hall and he has a night light in his room.

We did this after he was up from 2.30 til 6am.

He got up four times last night, I’m tired of this and I need to fix it.

One time for a wee I can handle.

Please don’t tell me he’s only little and I just need to deal with it. I’m exhausted and would like some advice please.

I have no idea why he’s doing this- he does stall at night, but I don’t know why he’s doing these frequent night wakings. He’s knackering me out and himself.

Anyone been through similar. Could it be a control thing?

Can you not put him in a pull up at night to make him feel more secure?

Also why do you write it as pooh..its poo isn't it ??

I think the guidelines on here are not to correct spelling and grammar. But ah well!

I don’t understand your advice about a pull up, this wouldn’t make him more secure- he’ll still wake me up

He could be picking up on your negativity. I think it's quite common. I get that you're tired but he's not doing it to wind you up. Try not to shoe how annoyed you are. Maybe try waking him up at 11ish for dream wee. We used to do that with DD - she would wee and then go back to sleep.

No he’s done this on his own. Just cos I’m clearly knackered and tired, I lead him to bed say are you okay? And he says yes. He goes back to sleep (sometimes) and then we start all over again later. The other night he just kept crying and wouldn’t go back to sleep.

We did the dream wee, it doesn’t work. He’s waking up multiple times all of a sudden. Once he needs a wee, the other times I have no idea what it’s about. I hear there’s a sleep regression at 3, I’m wondering whether anyone’s been through similar.

So maybe talk to GP about possible child constipation and get help. This doesn't sound like bade behaviour but something he's struggling with.

I put a potty next to the bed when DC first came out of pull ups at night.

@assiasi he currently Poohs every three days, he is not constipated but withholding as part of a regression (I think). We have lactulose that we give every three days. I may increase this to every other day.

As I said I’m not even sure if it’s related, but wrote it down as a possibility.

@AubergineDream we have it just outside his room but he will come out and says he needs a wee and won’t sit on it on his own. I ha e to tell him to sit on it 🤷🏽‍♀️ But I don’t think the other times he’s waking are wee related. He only needs a wee once in a night. He’s gone 4 nights before without weeing and waiting til the morning. I’m wondering though if he’s not poohing every day his bowel could be pressing on his bladder.

If he's only going once every 3 days & withholding you may need to see a doctor. I've had a similar problem with my 3 year old, it was awful, but a doctor prescribed movicol (firstly she needed disimpaction & now on maintenance dose one every other day) and we don't get withholding anymore. I think I've read somewhere withholding can lead to bladder problems & night wetting, but honestly the movicol has been a game changer for us!

He's constipated. His bowel will be pushing on his bladder increasing the need to wee. It's very normal for children to hold poo in when they are trained. He probably has a tummy ache too. Been through the same with my 3yo DS. They are very little though and it will get better, but I think a Gp for the constipation will help. Lactulose daily, and look at his diet to increase fibre.

@Topjoe19 Thank you for your post. How often was your little one going? I’d rather do lactulose than movicol but I’ll see what the dr suggests. We have a good online service I can use.

@imalmostthere
Thanks for this. He has seeded granary which is high in fibre and I’m giving him a pear a day. His diet is reasonably good. Perhaps I could get some mixed wholewheat pasta instead of white etc. He also eats a lot of baked beans and loves his veg. His Poohs don’t seem particularly hard once they come out, but I need to make it less easy for him to withhold. There was a time when he was going almost every other day!

I’m still unsure if it’s that, but tackling it will definitely help with any discomfort.

Last night he requested stickers at 3.30 in the morning for instance- but I guess something is disturbing his sleep in the first place.

I meant almost every day, if it even other day

@Topjoe19 why the need for disimpaction? Was it particularly severe?

No not severe I thought but I'm so glad I went to the doctor, I didn't realise she would need disimpaction (had been withholding for 3-4 days I think at that point, but regularly withholding for that many days at a time over a period of 3 weeks) The disimpaction was successful after about 4 days then moved to maintenance. We still have issues occasionally the movicol means she can't help but go so its building her confidence as time goes on. ERIC was a really helpful website.

Does he drink plenty of water during the day?

Fluid intake has a notable impact on constipation as well as diet.

Definitely need to drink more rather than eat loads of dry fibre. Sit him on the toilet or potty to try for a poo at the same time each day. If it doesn't come it doesn't come, but this is good habit. He needs to be going daily.

Oranges we find help get things going, plums too.

It could be something completely unrelated. My 3 year old wakes up over night because she's lost a toy or doesn't like her pyjamas. And she's very regular bowel wise.

He’s having as much fluids as I can give. We give him very weak diluted squash as he wasn’t drinking enough in the summer. I can’t get him to drink any more. He probably has about 600 ml a day as he’s not keen on milk. He also won’t eat porridge with milk in. Then of course there’s any fluid in fruit etc.

My DS did still start sleeping through about 3, then I had a baby when he was 3.5, and he went through a patch of waking up more than a newborn. I do feel your pain. It was frustrating when your newborn is asleep and your 3 year old awake, but by 4 he was fine again. I think it's more painful as you don't expect it when they are out of the baby / toddler years. I can't say I know exactly what was causing it, but he really came on in his development ( speech, play, recognising letters ) and so I guess something was happening. I did find that making him get straight up to go for a wee once he woke,instead of trying to get him back to sleep often helped. Sometimes he just went straight back to sleep. Sometimes he needed a cuddle, when they get big I think we forget, which fits with me having less cuddles with him due to the baby.

Thanks @whenyouseemyface it’s exactly how I feel. I have a nearly one year old who has been sleeping much better than him!

He also has been mostly going to sleep after he’s had a wee. But recently things have taken a turn... no idea why!

And gosh his mood in the day has been terrible too as he’s tired. 😩